Recycled Sweater Animals

Old sweaters that are too worn, torn or stained for the thrift store or clothing drive can be recycled into attractive new toys. The handcrafted look of sweater animals make them beautiful decorations for a child's room, or even for around the house. Plus, you don't have to knit or crochet a stitch to create durable stuffed animals.

Choosing Sweater Fabric

Tightly woven fabrics usually work best for sewing sweater animals, as they won't unravel easily as you work and won't have gaps between the stitches. If you want your animal to look realistic, find a sweater with a texture and color similar to that animal's coat. Select another sweater in a different color for accents. If you want your sweater animal to look more whimsical than realistic, choose any colors you like, or even patterns. A polka-dotted print would make an adorable leopard coat, and pink and black stripes would create a jazzy looking zebra, for instance.

Using Patterns

Using a pattern will help you achieve the results you want. Unless you're an experienced sewer, it's difficult to estimate exactly how big you need to make each sweater cut-out without a pattern. Look for stuffed animal patterns in a local craft shop, craft books or online. If you want to create your own pattern, you'll need to cut out shapes that mirror each other for each part of the animal.

Felting the Fabric

Felting isn't absolutely necessary -- if you like the stitched look, skip the felting. However, if you want a denser, fuzzier fabric, felt your sweater before cutting and sewing. Felting will also help to stop the fabric from unraveling as you work. Wool, wool blends and other animal-hair weaves work best for felting; some synthetic blends are designed to withstand machine washing and won't felt easily or at all (see References 2). Simply wash your sweater in the washing machine in hot water. Use regular detergent and add a towel to the load -- the towel will aggravate the fibers of the sweater, causing it to felt. Machine-drying the sweater with or without the towel will encourage the fibers to continue felting. Drying will also make the sweater shrink, creating a denser fabric (see Reference 1).

Technical Details

If you haven't felted your sweater, the yarn may start to unravel as you cut and sew. To prevent unraveling, pin the pattern to the fabric and sew along the pattern line, where you wish to cut the fabric. Use a dense stitch to catch as many fibers as possible, sewing twice around if need be. Then cut the fabric just above the stitching. Use thread that matches your yarn as closely as possible in all of your sewing. When stuffing the animal, pull the fill apart so it's light and fluffy instead of clumpy, then pack it in densely so your sweater animal will keep its form.

Adding Embellishments

Use buttons or beads for the eyes or nose, or sew on felt cut-outs for facial features. If the toy is for a small child, however, avoid small parts like buttons that could break off and be swallowed. Instead, embroider on the eyes, nose and mouth with thick thread.

Sweater Surgery: How to Make New Things with Old Sweaters; Stephanie Girard

Wool Felting Workshop; Vivian Peritts

About the Author

Melanie J. Martin specializes in environmental issues and sustainable living. Her work has appeared in venues such as the Environmental News Network, "Ocean" magazine and "GREEN Retailer." Martin holds a Master of Arts in English.